I. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a compact bracket on which fire extinguishers may be securely mounted. The bracket is particularly suited for attachment inside aircraft, trucks, tanks, boats, railroad cars and the like where mounting space is at a premium and the bracket with extinguisher mounted thereon is often subjected to external forces such as are commonly encountered in moving vehicles.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Fire extinguisher brackets typically have been constructed for attacnment to an interior wall with the extinguisher being mounted in a vertical position. Problems arise when such brackets are attacned in areas of limited space such as the interior of a vehicle, aircraft or the like and subjected to forces such as are commonly encountered during normal travel and especially during a crash. For example, the brackets disclosed in Hain U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,720 and Reynolds U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,288 contain no mechanism that positively latches about the extinguisher such that the extinguisher is more strongly gripped by the bracket as the magnitude of the external forces increases. Also, problems often arise in trying to quickly release an extinguisher from a bracket. One such problem in Brock U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,529 wherein one must follow the relatively time-consuming process of unlatching the latch mechanism and then pulling the portions of the latch mechanism out of the way as much as possible before the extinguisher can be removed. This problem is magnified when the latch mechanism is fixed in one position as is the case with the Hain and Brock devices. Brackets have typically included a mechanism for preventing discharge of the extinguisher until it is removed from the bracket as is shown in the Hain and Brock patents. The inclusion of such mechanism in a bracket attached to the interior of a vehicle, aircraft or the like, where removal of the extinguisher from the bracket is blocked, often renders the extinguisher inoperable at a time when it is most likely to be needed.